DOCSLIB.ORG

Problematising the Official Athens Mosque: Between Mere Place Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Problematising the Official Athens Mosque: Between Mere Place Of religions Article Problematising the Official Athens Mosque: Between Mere Place of Worship and 21st Century ‘Trojan Horse’ Christina Verousi * and Chris Allen School of Criminology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: This article investigates the ‘problematisation’ of the recently inaugurated mosque in the city of Athens, the capital’s first ‘official’ mosque since the country was liberated from the Ottoman Empire almost two centuries ago. Building on and developing the existing scholarly literature on the problematisation of mosques in the contemporary European setting, this article generates new knowledge by focusing on the Greco-specific context of that same problematisation: an amalgam of history, geography, religion and culture, that asymmetrically shape and inform how and why the new Athens mosque is—and indeed continues to be—a site of conflict and opposition. Presenting new empirical data, this article uses an innovative and original approach to bring together two separate pieces of fieldwork undertaken first-hand by the authors in 2001/2 and 2019/20. Analysing the two sets of data, a threefold thematic structure is employed that focuses on Greece’s history, Christian Orthodoxy and global terrorism. This article first explores the existing scholarly canon relating to the contemporary problematisation of mosques through a focused overview of Greece’s history, religion and culture appropriate to mosques and in part, Muslims and Islam. From there it sets out the findings from the two periods of fieldwork to illustrate and evidence discourses of opposition towards Citation: Verousi, Christina, and the mosque and how these serve to function both symbolically and tangibly. Using the thematic Chris Allen. 2021. Problematising the analysis, theories relating to the ideological processes of Islamophobia are deployed to elucidate Official Athens Mosque: Between a better understanding of the Athens mosque. In doing so, this article makes a timely contribution. Mere Place of Worship and 21st Century ‘Trojan Horse’. Religions 12: 485. https://doi.org/10.3390/ Keywords: mosque problematisation; Islamophobia; Greece; Greek Muslims; Athens; Islam in Greece rel12070485 Academic Editor: Annemarie C. Mayer 1. Introduction According to Göle(2011), mosques in ‘the West’ are no longer mere places of worship Received: 26 May 2021 but instead function as cultural-political constructions that symbolically embody difference Accepted: 26 June 2021 and ‘Otherness’. Accordingly, mosques have become sites of conflict through which the Published: 29 June 2021 symbolic ‘problematisation’ Muslims and Islam is made known. For Allen(2017), this problematisation is further intensified in relation to the building and development of new Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral mosques. As sites of conflict, the discourses of opposition directed at new mosques are with regard to jurisdictional claims in informed by these very same symbolic functions and processes. Such is true of Greece’s published maps and institutional affil- first new ‘official’ mosque since the country was liberated from the Ottoman Empire almost iations. two centuries ago. Located in Athens and having opened its doors for the first time in late 2019, Greece was previously the only European country in which the capital city did not have a state-recognised mosque. A 350-person-capacity building, albeit without any ornate or Islamic features, the city’s new mosque marks the culmination of a long-fought battle. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. With the first attempt to build a mosque dating back to 1890 (Speed 2019)—a century Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. before contemporary debates about the integration of Muslims in Europe began—the This article is an open access article problematisation of mosques as indeed the presence of the religion of Islam and Muslims distributed under the terms and in Greece more generally would seem to have a longer and deeper history of contestation conditions of the Creative Commons than elsewhere in Europe. Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// Investigating the new Athens mosque to build on and develop the existing scholarly creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ literature on the contemporary problematisation of mosques, this article generates new 4.0/). Religions 2021, 12, 485. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070485 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Religions 2021, 12, 485 2 of 17 knowledge by focusing on the Greco-specific context: an amalgam of history, geography, religion and culture, that asymmetrically shape and inform how and why the new Athens mosque is—and indeed continues to be—a site of conflict and opposition. Presenting new empirical data, this article is the first scholarly study to investigate the new Athens mosque since its official opening. In doing so, an innovative and original approach brings together two separate pieces of fieldwork undertaken first-hand by the authors in 2001/2 and 2019/20. Analysing the two sets of data, a threefold thematic structure is employed that focuses on Greece’s history, Christian Orthodoxy and global terrorism. To ensure the findings and analyses are contextualised, this article first explores the existing scholarly canon relating to the contemporary problematisation of mosques before providing a fo- cused overview of Greece’s history, religion and culture appropriate to mosques and in part, Muslims and the religion of Islam. As well as contributing to what is a relatively embryonic body of work this article generates new knowledge and thinking about the new Athens mosque specifically and the Greco-specific social, political, cultural and theological determinants that shape and inform its contestation and opposition. Importantly, this article also makes a timely contribution to the limited academic literature investigating Muslims and Islam in contemporary Greece. 2. Methods and Approaches The approach to the research underpinning this article was fourfold. The first com- prised detailed reviews of the literature relating to the problematisation of mosques in Greece and Europe, historically and contemporarily. Non-specialist resources were also reviewed including those available in the mainstream media and online spaces. The sec- ond comprised a secondary analysis of empirical data gathered by one of the authors as principal investigator of a project funded by the now defunct European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), and its successor, the Fundamental Rights Agency. Gathered while investigating Islamophobia post-9/11 in the then 15 European Union (EU) member nations, the project drew together 75 nationally focused reports—four per member nation—from which a synthesis report was published (Allen and Nielsen 2002). As an EU member nation then and indeed now, a feature of the empirical data gathered in Greece centred on what was at the time a proposed new mosque in Athens. As only the synthesis findings were published, much of the empirical data gathered across the 15 nations were not made publicly available at the time or indeed since. Through revisiting the data from Greece and the mosque specifically, this approach affords a unique opportunity to present findings that are new and original. The third approach analysed primary data gathered by one of the authors while undertaking fieldwork in Greece from January to July 2019. This included interviewing 29 individuals and stakeholders identifying as Muslim, 21 of whom were permanent residents of Athens where the interviews were conducted. The others resided elsewhere in Greece. As with the previous approach, while primarily focusing on Islamophobia in Greece, a significant feature of the data gathered centred on the newly constructed and inaugurated Athens mosque. Both the data and findings are therefore original, not having been published in any format elsewhere. The final approach was to thematically analyse the two datasets. Thematic analysis was preferred due to it being a qualitative method that can be consistently and coherently used across different epistemologies and research questions (Nowell et al. 2017). For Boyatzis(1998), this is especially important when researchers analyse data gathered using different research methods but who wish to communicate with each other across the data. Likewise, Braun and Clarke(2006) and King(2004) also highlighted the value of thematic analysis as an effective method for examining data gathered at different times and in different ways. There are disadvantages to thematic analysis, however. As Nowell et al.(2017) noted, thematic analysis can be afforded less credibility than other qualitative approaches given its potential for inconsistencies due to its inherent flexibility. In seeking to minimise any potential disadvantages or detrimental impacts, the authors acknowledge the observations of Holloway and Todres(2003) and the Religions 2021, 12, 485 3 of 17 need to ensure empirical claims are appropriately evidenced. Doing so, three primary—and importantly, comparative—themes were identified across the two datasets: the role and function of history, the role and function of Christian Orthodoxy, and the perceived threat of terrorism. 3. The Contemporary Problematisation of Mosques in ‘the West’ It was little more than a decade ago that the first scholarly studies investigating the contemporary ‘problematisation’ of the building and construction of mosques in Europe emerged. Spanning different geographical locations, these studies explored problematisa-
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Race, Religion, and Afghan Refugees' Practices of Care in Greece
    14 Race, Religion, and Afghan Refugees’ Practices of Care in Greece Zareena A. Grewal Introduction: Muslims and the Politics of Recognition in Greece On 7 June 2019, Greek Education and Religious Affairs minister Costas Gavroglou addressed a crowd of about one hundred Muslims, journalists, and state offi cials at the “inauguration” of the government’s partially con- structed, purpose-built mosque in Athens: “Athens now has a dignifi ed place of worship for Muslims whether they are citizens or migrants, refugees, or visitors. The right to pray to the god you believe in, like the right of a child to go to school, does not depend on the circumstances under which some- one arrived here. Everyone has these rights. They are non-negotiable hu- man rights” (Speed 2019). By 2019, there were nearly 300,000 Muslims in Athens, yet it remained the only European capital without an operational mosque. After the offer of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd to build an exqui- site mosque in Athens was refused, a 2006 presidential decree committed the Greek government to build the fi rst mosque in the city since Ottoman rule ended in 1821. Numerous delays halted construction, including in 2014 when contractors refused to take on the project out of fear of violent attacks from members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party; Muslims are the most frequent targets of their racist attacks (Palivos 2018: 272). With the leftist SYRIZA party’s electoral success in 2015, plans for building a mosque re- This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.
    [Show full text]
  • 3/4 What Can We Learn from Sacred Places of Worship? Sacred Places in the Community
    Telford &Wrekin SACRE Agreed Syllabus RE Model Unit plan - guidance for teachers Term/ Time allocation Year Group Unit of Work/Key question This unit can be planned around the opportunities for visits to 3/4 What can we learn from sacred places of worship? sacred places in the community. Half term -6-8 hours Unit context/intent/background information Prior learning This unit provides teachers and learners with an enquiry-focused approach to learning from visits to sacred places. Children may have visited a religious The emphasis on learning outside the classroom, and exploring questions through a visit provides for learning building in EYFS/KS1 about sacred places as spaces to worship God. Children are given an opportunity to discover, experience and reflect on the communities, features and artefacts found in sacred places and the importance of special or sacred Agreed Syllabus Units Unit 8 (KS1) ‘Finding out about Christian places in their own lives and those of others. The unit will work best if pupils can visit the sacred buildings of two churches and Jewish synagogues’ religions, and explore others through a virtual visit or in some other way. Unit 9(KS1) ‘Respect for everyone’ Unit 10 (KS1) ‘Symbols of belonging’ Key learning objectives Key Questions from Telford and Wrekin Syllabus Key Values British Values • children can describe what is meant by ‘sacred’ Why can buildings be special to people? Respect Mutual respect • children can describe and compare a sacred place What do religious buildings look like in Telford and Wrekin? tolerance
    [Show full text]
  • Freedom of Religion and Other Human Rights for Non-Muslim Minorities in Turkey and for the Muslim Minority in Thrace (Eastern Greece)
    Doc. 11860 21 April 2009 Freedom of religion and other human rights for non-Muslim minorities in Turkey and for the Muslim minority in Thrace (Eastern Greece) Report Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Rapporteur: Mr Michel HUNAULT, France, European Democrat Group Summary In the opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Greece and Turkey should have all their citizens belonging to religious minorities treated in accordance with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, rather than rely on the “reciprocity” principle stated by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne to withhold the application of certain rights. The committee acknowledges that the question is “emotionally very highly charged”, but it asserts that the two countries should treat all their citizens without discrimination, regardless of the way in which the neighbouring state may treat its own citizens. The committee considers that the recurrent invoking by Greece and Turkey of the principle of reciprocity as a basis for refusing to implement the rights secured to the minorities concerned by the Treaty of Lausanne is “anachronistic” and could jeopardise each country's national cohesion. However, it welcomes some recent indications that the authorities of the two countries have gained a certain awareness, with a view to finding appropriate responses to the difficulties faced by the members of these minorities, and encourages them to continue their efforts in that direction. The committee therefore urges the two countries to take measures for the members of the religious minorities – particularly as regards education and the right to own property – and to ensure that the members of these minorities are no longer perceived as foreigners in their own country.
    [Show full text]
  • 1186 B.C.E. the Trojan War Greece
    1186 B.C.E. The Trojan War Greece The events in the myth of The Judgement of Paris started a period of war called the Trojan War, in which the city of Troy and its allies fought the city­state of Sparta and its allies. Most of what we know of the Trojan War comes from epics such as Homer’s I​liad a​nd O​ dyssey,​ but there is evidence that the Trojan War was a real event; the problem is that we don’t know exactly how much of what is described in the I​liad ​is true. For example, the I​liad f​eatures Gods and Goddesses not present in modern society or belief, as well as people that may have been idealized as war heroes. The following is what we know about the events of the Trojan War from the I​liad.​ Menelaus, the king of Sparta, was so angry that Paris had taken his wife that he set out to wage war with Paris and the city of Troy. To do so, he sent out for certain people to help, such as Odysseus, the hero of the Odyssey,​ and Achilles, who a seer said the war would not be won without. The Greeks first attacked nearby kingdoms that were supplying Troy, destroying the Trojan economy, killing Trojan hero Hector and looting spoils of war. However, the Greeks couldn’t break down the wall that surrounded Troy, so Odysseus devised a plan now known as the Trojan Horse. The Greeks hid inside a giant wooden horse that they tricked the Trojans to let inside their walls.
    [Show full text]
  • Christians and Jews in Muslim Societies
    Arabic and its Alternatives Christians and Jews in Muslim Societies Editorial Board Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA) Bernard Heyberger (EHESS, Paris, France) VOLUME 5 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/cjms Arabic and its Alternatives Religious Minorities and Their Languages in the Emerging Nation States of the Middle East (1920–1950) Edited by Heleen Murre-van den Berg Karène Sanchez Summerer Tijmen C. Baarda LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Assyrian School of Mosul, 1920s–1930s; courtesy Dr. Robin Beth Shamuel, Iraq. This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Murre-van den Berg, H. L. (Hendrika Lena), 1964– illustrator. | Sanchez-Summerer, Karene, editor. | Baarda, Tijmen C., editor. Title: Arabic and its alternatives : religious minorities and their languages in the emerging nation states of the Middle East (1920–1950) / edited by Heleen Murre-van den Berg, Karène Sanchez, Tijmen C. Baarda. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2020. | Series: Christians and Jews in Muslim societies, 2212–5523 ; vol.
    [Show full text]
  • 9. Features of a Catholic Church
    1. What is a parish? 2. What is the difference between Church/ A place of worship Inside a Catholic Church church? 3. What is a confessional? A Catholic church is the place of worship where Catholics gather as a community to The interior of Roman Catholic churches can vary from 4. What takes place at the altar? celebrate their faith. Most Catholics will attend a local parish church. A parish is the very plain and simple to fancy and ornate, but whatever 5. What command Jesus gave does baptism local Christian community around a church building. They are usually looked after by a the design, the whole church will be focused on the follow? priest, who leads the community and celebrates the sacraments. Christians call their sanctuary. Sanctuary means ‘holy place’. This is where the 6. What is a lectern? church ‘the house of God’. Many Christians believe that the community of believers altar, lectern and tabernacle are. The sanctuary is the 7. What is a tabernacle? (the Church) is more important than the church building, which is simply a meeting centre of public worship. These are features you would 8. What other features are there inside a place for the Church. expect to find in a Catholic church: church and how are they used? The Confessional The crucifix This is a small room or box-like structure in which the Sacrament of Reconciliation In Catholic churches there is always a crucifix – a cross with 1. Create a detailed takes place. This is when Catholics confess their sins to a priest.
    [Show full text]
  • Jurnal Ilmiah Bahasa, Sastra, Dan Budaya Jerman
    VOLUME 03 Mei 2018 ISSN 2339 - 045 X JURNAL ILMIAH BAHASA, SASTRA, DAN BUDAYA JERMAN TREN-TREN GLOBAL ILMU GERMANISTIK: AWAL MULA, PERKEMBANGAN, DAN PERBEDAAN- PERBEDAAN SECARA REGIONAL Globale Trends in der Germanistik: Entstehung, Entwicklung und Regionale Unterschiede N. Rinaju Purnomowulan | Dian Ekawati | Marlene Klässner (eds.) Tren-Tren Global Ilmu Germanistik: Awal Mula, Perkembangan, dan Perbedaan-Perbedaan Secara Regional Globale Trends in der Germanistik: Entstehung, Entwicklung und Regionale Unterschiede JURNAL ILMIAH BAHASA, SASTRA, DAN BUDAYA JERMAN VOLUME 03| MEI 2018 Impressum Herausgeber: IGV (Indonesischer Germanistenverband) AGI (Asosiasi Germanistik Indonesia) Zeitschrift-Layout Fajerin Nur Syafitri Heny Setyowati Textlayout und -editierung Kamelia Gantrisia Genita Cansrina Projektkoordination N. Rinaju Purnomowulan Redaktion N. Rinaju Purnomowulan Dian Ekawati Marlene Klässner Reviewer Dr. Patcharin Chaiwan (Thailand) Dr. Dang Thi Thu Hien (Vietnam) Michaela Zimmerman, M.A. (Deutschland/Thailand) Prof. Dr. Pratomo Widodo(Indonesien) Marlene Klässner, M.A. (Deutschland/Indonesien) ISSN 2339 – 045X Über INDONESISCHER GERMANISTENVERBAND IGV (ASOSIASI GERMANISTIK INDONESIA) Am 30. November 2007 wurde beim Abschluss einer DAAD- Fortbildungsveranstaltung in Jakarta, an der Vertreter der 14 Deutschabteilungen an Universitäten in Indonesien teilgenommen haben, beschlossen einen Indonesischen Germanistenverband zu gründen. Die Ziele des Indonesischen Germanistenverbandes sind folgende: 1. Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Dozenten
    [Show full text]
  • MYTHOLOGY MAY 2018 Detail of Copy After Arpino's Perseus and Andromeda
    HOMESCHOOL THIRD THURSDAYS MYTHOLOGY MAY 2018 Detail of Copy after Arpino's Perseus and Andromeda Workshop of Giuseppe Cesari (Italian), 1602-03. Oil on canvas. Bequest of John Ringling, 1936. Creature Creation Today, we challenge you to create your own mythological creature out of Crayola’s Model Magic! Open your packet of Model Magic and begin creating. If you need inspiration, take a look at the back of this sheet. MYTHOLOGICAL Try to incorporate basic features of animals – eyes, mouths, legs, etc.- while also combining part of CREATURES different creatures. Some works of art that we are featuring for Once you’ve finished sculpting, today’s Homeschool Third Thursday include come up with a unique name for creatures like the sea monster. Many of these your creature. Does your creature mythological creatures consist of various human have any special powers or and animal parts combined into a single creature- abilities? for example, a centaur has the body of a horse and the torso of a man. Other times the creatures come entirely from the imagination, like the sea monster shown above. Some of these creatures also have supernatural powers, some good and some evil. Mythological Creatures: Continued Greco-Roman mythology features many types of mythological creatures. Here are some ideas to get your project started! Sphinxes are wise, riddle- loving creatures with bodies of lions and heads of women. Greek hero Perseus rides a flying horse named Pegasus. Sphinx Centaurs are Greco- Pegasus Roman mythological creatures with torsos of men and legs of horses. Satyrs are creatures with the torsos of men and the legs of goats.
    [Show full text]
  • Golden Dawn and the Deafening Silence of Europe
    Analysis Golden Dawn and the deafening silence of Europe Jerome Roos, editor, ROAR online magazine With a neo-Nazi party on the rise in Greece, it seems that even a Weimar-like scenario might be tolerable for EU leaders insisting on further austerity. “For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Remind Us.” Those are the words carved into a memorial stone underneath the Austrian house where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889. “Never Again.” This was the uniform slogan resounding across Europe after the full scale of Nazi atrocities became known in the wake of World War Two (WWII). The cosmopolitan project of European integration was founded upon this promise. Never again would fascists and warmongers be allowed to tear the Old Continent and its people apart. One day it may therefore be considered one of history’s greatest ironies that, as EU leaders were busy deciding who would collect its Nobel Prize for “the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights,” those same leaders remained woefully silent when a recent survey indicated that the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party now polls third [1] in Greece, at 14 percent. This is a showing comparable to that of Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party in 1930, three years before rising to power and setting the world on course for WWII. For clarity’s sake: the comparison made between National Socialism and Golden Dawn is by no means an exaggeration. Golden Dawn is an extreme-right organisation whose emblem [2] deliberately resembles a swastika; whose leader publicly gave the Nazi salute [3] upon his election to Parliament; whose magazine [4] regularly features articles and pictures of the Führer himself; whose spokesman recently assaulted [5] two female rivals on a live TV show; whose manifesto pledges to drive all immigrants [6] out of hospitals and all non-Greek children out of kindergartens; and whose MPs actively participate in racist pogroms [7] against Greece’s immigrant population.
    [Show full text]
  • Compatibility of Sharia Law with the European Convention on Human Rights: Can States Parties to the Convention Be Signatories to the “Cairo Declaration”?
    http://assembly.coe.int Doc. 14787 03 January 2019 Compatibility of Sharia law with the European Convention on Human Rights: can States Parties to the Convention be signatories to the “Cairo Declaration”? Report1 Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Rapporteur: Mr Antonio GUTIÉRREZ, Spain, Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group Summary The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights considers that the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, whilst not legally binding, has symbolic value and political significance in terms of human rights policy under Islam. However, it fails to reconcile Islam with universal human rights, especially insofar as it considers Sharia law as its sole source of reference and does not recognise certain rights. The committee is therefore concerned that three Council of Europe member States – Albania, Azerbaijan and Turkey – are signatories to the 1990 Cairo Declaration, as are Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and Palestine, whose parliaments enjoy partner for democracy status with the Parliamentary Assembly. The committee considers that where human rights are concerned there is no room for religious or cultural exceptions. Member States and partners for democracy should bolster religious pluralism, tolerance and equal rights of all. Bridges of understanding between Sharia law and the European Convention on Human Rights should be created, on the prior condition of acceptance that the Convention is an international instrument binding on all States Parties. This report also addresses the actual application of Sharia principles in certain member States and makes country-specific recommendations. 1. Reference to committee: Doc. 13965, Reference 4188 of 4 March 2016. F - 67075 Strasbourg Cedex | [email protected] | Tel: +33 3 88 41 2000 | assembly.coe.int Doc.
    [Show full text]
  • Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse
    Betz, Hans-Georg. "Mosques, Minarets, Burqas and Other Essential Threats: The Populist Right’s Campaign against Islam in Western Europe." Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse. Ed. Ruth Wodak, Majid KhosraviNik and Brigitte Mral. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. 71–88. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 24 Sep. 2021. <http:// dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781472544940.ch-005>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 24 September 2021, 18:01 UTC. Copyright © Ruth Wodak, Majid KhosraviNik and Brigitte Mral and the contributors 2013. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 5 Mosques, Minarets, Burqas and Other Essential Threats: The Populist Right’s Campaign against Islam in Western Europe Hans-Georg Betz Barcelona 2011: Three girls in miniskirts are jumping over a rope somewhere in a car park in the city. Barcelona 2025: The same three girls, same location, only the miniskirts have been replaced by burqas. This was the content of a video spot produced by Platforma per Catalunya (PxC) for the Catalan local elections in 2011.1 Responsible for the video was Josep Anglada, the leader of PxC. Founded in 2002 by Anglada, PxC is modelled on successful Western European right-wing populist parties, without however initially attracting much more than marginal support at the polls. This might have had something to do with the fact that, in the past, Anglada had been closely associated with Spain’s post-Francoist far right (such as Blas Piñar’s Fuerza Nueva and its successors) which, given the Franco regime’s history of iron-fisted repression of Catalan identity, was hardly an asset in Catalonia.
    [Show full text]
  • Branson-Shaffer-Vatican-II.Pdf
    Vatican II: The Radical Shift to Ecumenism Branson Shaffer History Faculty advisor: Kimberly Little The Catholic Church is the world’s oldest, most continuous organization in the world. But it has not lasted so long without changing and adapting to the times. One of the greatest examples of the Catholic Church’s adaptation to the modernization of society is through the Second Vatican Council, held from 11 October 1962 to 8 December 1965. In this gathering of church leaders, the Catholic Church attempted to shift into a new paradigm while still remaining orthodox in faith. It sought to bring the Church, along with the faithful, fully into the twentieth century while looking forward into the twenty-first. Out of the two billion Christians in the world, nearly half of those are Catholic.1 But, Vatican II affected not only the Catholic Church, but Christianity as a whole through the principles of ecumenism and unity. There are many reasons the council was called, both in terms of internal, Catholic needs and also in aiming to promote ecumenism among non-Catholics. There was also an unprecedented event that occurred in the vein of ecumenical beginnings: the invitation of preeminent non-Catholic theologians and leaders to observe the council proceedings. This event, giving outsiders an inside look at 1 World Religions (2005). The Association of Religious Data Archives, accessed 13 April 2014, http://www.thearda.com/QuickLists/QuickList_125.asp. CLA Journal 2 (2014) pp. 62-83 Vatican II 63 _____________________________________________________________ the Catholic Church’s way of meeting modern needs, allowed for more of a reaction from non-Catholics.
    [Show full text]